Of the many bills that have made it to President Barack Obama's desk in the past few weeks, the one named The Katie Sepich Enhanced DNA Collection Act of 2012 has the utmost significance to a Carlsbad family.

Above Jayann Sepich's desk at her Quail Hollow home hangs a U.S. map like none other.

At first glance, it looks no different than any other map of the 50 states, but a closer look reveals tiny dots over several of the states. Twenty-five of them are orange, and several more are marked with blue.
The map gained its significance in 2005 when the Sepich family began an initiative called Katie's Law - a bill that has passed in 25 states - the orange dots requiring that a DNA sample be taken upon arrest for anyone suspected of a felony.

A spin off of Katie's Law, The Katie Sepich Enhanced DNA Collection Act of 2012 is now being reviewed in the White House after passing with a unanimous vote in the Senate last month. According to Jayann Sepich's daughter Caraline, the bill would allow for three years of funding for all states for the initial costs of starting the Katie's Law project and DNA database.

The Katie's Law initiative is named after Dave and Jayann Sepiches' deceased daughter who was raped, murdered and burned at the age of 22 while attending New Mexico State University-Las Cruces.

"She fought very hard for her life," said Jayann Sepich. "She had her attacker's skin under her fingernails.

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When the Sepich family traveled to Las Cruces to meet with police investigators who had no leads on Katie's killer, Jayann said she remembers telling the police detective something along the lines of, "I'm sure that monster will be arrested for something else, so they'll find him," to which the detective replied that it was illegal to take a DNA sample upon arrest in the state of New Mexico. He explained that someone arrested on a different charge could not be connected with the DNA of Katie's murderer unless he or she was first convicted of a crime.

The detective's statement came as a shock to the couple because after having watched shows like "CSI" for years, they were both under the impression that taking a $30 cheek swab to gain a DNA profile of anyone arrested for a felony was common practice.

"We were sadly mistaken," said Dave Sepich.

If indeed a DNA profile had been taken on Gabriel Avila when he was arrested for an aggravated burglary within 90 days of Katie's murder, law enforcement officials would have been able to identify him as her killer. But instead, Avila got off on bail and left the country for three years before returning to New Mexico and committing another felony, which eventually led to his involvement in the Katie Sepich case after the state had adopted Katie's Law.

Since that day in the detective's office, Jayann Sepich, with the support of her husband and children, has devoted her life to seeing that every state pass a law requiring arrestee DNA. She has visited almost all of them - the blue dots on the map - and has made several trips to speak with legislators in Washington, D.C., as well.

"Arrestee DNA is the greatest hope for families," said Jayann Sepich. "It's a tool that we have that we need to use."

Jayann and Dave Sepich said they have seen so many crimes solved in states that are currently practicing Katie's Law - including 27 homicides and 56 sexual assaults in New Mexico alone - and they believe many more have been avoided because of it.

"We've even seen it exonerate people," said Jayann Sepich, which she presented as another positive for Katie's Law.

Katie's Law opposers on both sides of the aisle have argued that it is a violation of the Fourth Constitutional Amendment, which protects the rights of citizens against unreasonable searches and seizures. But the Sepiches argue that the DNA profiles are noninvasive, and are much less compromising than giving out a Social Security number.

And to prove that she really believes it, Jayann Sepich put her DNA profile on the back of all of her business cards to further educate the public why she believes only good can come of Katie's Law.

"This whole thing began to get Katie's murder solved initially," said Jayann Sepich, "but in our research, we found it was so much better than that. It's about saving so many lives so that other families don't have to go through what we went through."

Obama was expected to put his signature on the funding for the Katie's Law bill by Jan. 3, but the Sepich family was still awaiting confirmation as of late Thursday afternoon.

"He has only vetoed one bill the whole time he has been in office, so we're not too worried," said Jayann Sepich.

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